Mob Psycho 100 Episode 1

So how was the first episode of Mob Psycho 100? If you ask me, it was close to being the perfect opener of this series. As a fan of the original manga, who have read almost 70+ chapters up-to-date, this opening episode hyped me and made me believe that studio BONES is more than capable of depicting this shounen title to its max potential, despite my initial disappointment as to why studio MADHOUSE wasn’t the studio going to animate it. I really hope you also had your fill of fun and excitement and will be eagerly anticipating the next episode due of course, seven days from today.

I know this is already a widespread trivia, but for the sake of some minuscule number of people who remain oblivious about this fact, then let me enlighten you. Mob Psycho 100 is another work of the famous web-manga artist named ONE, same dude who brought us One Punch Man. So are you feeling hyped right now?

We’re gonna start this review by talking about a part of the main plot of Mob Psycho 100. To those who aren’t readers of the original reference, please forgive me for spoiling a bit of what this series is all about. Enter Kageyama Shigeo, a somewhat aloof middleschooler, who has a tremendously lax attitude and low standards in life. However, contrast to his negative vibes, he is a natural gifted boy with inborn psychic powers, not to mention he’s exceptional and too strong to be just another stereotype esper. As we have seen him easily blasting enemies like they were a piece of slimy jelly in the first minutes of the first episode, it’s almost definite to say he’s omnipotent. But hold your horses, there’s more to him than any other title characters. So for now, I’ll let your imaginations run wild, speculating what’s gonna happen in the next episodes. But of course, to my fellow reader comrades, let’s enjoy the upcoming episodes thoroughly and try not to spoil the fun by being a killjoy by saying important spoilers. Let’s be prudent and practice discretion.
By the way, I know it’s not a bit of a stretch to notice its peculiar art. To those who aren’t sucked in because they were incline to refuse such artwork, please don’t instantly drop the hammer. I won’t say I guarantee you’ll enjoy it sooner or later, but if you let the prejudice kill your initial enthusiasm, then all I can say is that you’ll be missing something awesome in the making. So stick for a while, okay?

Let us carry on scrutinizing the first episode. BOOM, BANG, WHOA! I know mates, there’s an awesome amount of explosive reactions in it. Starting from the opening seconds, we saw a dramatic sequence of badass action scenes highlighting our protagonist, as aforementioned known biologically as Kageyama Shigeo, but has earned the moniker “Mob” meaning a literal background character from a massive crowd. Thus, we’ll call him Mob for consistency’s sake.

Another main character to look forward to is Arataka Reigen. As we all saw in the first episode, he’s a self-proclaimed psychic. Let’s speed up by saying, yeah, he’s a bonafide fraud who owns a spiritual agency dealing mainly with exorcism and by utilizing his vast intelligence about the supernatural, has made Mob his student and in short, makes Mob deal with every ghosts he’s suppose to eliminate. Unsurprisingly, Mob has to become someone who’s gullible and Reigen ought to be an overly-dramatic fake con-artist to make things more interesting. And with Mob, becoming Reigen’s apprentice, our protagonist has to deal with a lot of his master’s whims, the master has to spout lots of humorous claptraps and the rest is like the easiest history. Ah, please do note that Reigen, albeit his abuse of authority, still pays Mob a rate of 300 yen per day. Take note, it’s per day and that’s a blatant violation for what Mob’s innate potential is truly worth! But let’s forgive this fact, since this formula of dumb master and dumb apprentice is always equivalent to major fun.

So, okay, let’s deal with the last focal point to discuss. Wonder why the series is titled “Mob Psycho 100”? As explained above, Mob is the main character who has psychic powers etc-etc, but what about the number 100? To those who carefully watched the first episode, it’s fairly easy to notice the gauge with a percentage. That’s right, it’s a meter of measuring Mob’s impending explosion as shown in the first sequences of the episode.

What does it really mean, you ask? Mhmm, let’s not delve in further as the rest of the mystery needs to be unveiled with the right timing, on the right episode.

So yet again, let me ask you if the first episode hooked you in? Yours truly has been one of those suckers at shounen genres so it’s obviously, a yes for me. The first episode showed us that this series isn’t that hard to follow, very easy to digest, no deep, dark and unnerving plot and that it plays with the right amount of humor and comedy. Mob might initially appear as a generic hero, but make no mistake, if you’re “in” this show, I can guarantee this much, you’re gonna find yourself gradually liking Mob as much as you like big-name shounen heroes. But if you’re “out”, then there’s still time to cast away the ambivalence.

So I’m calling out to everyone to watch this weekly series. I usually hate saying things over and over again, but for this series, it’s worth being a broken record. Tune in every week! See you again!